Products and processes for establishing multi-transaction relationships with customers of vending machines

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various systems and methods for improving the establishment and management of vending machine subscriptions, including systems and methods for constructing, communicating, and registering subscriptions, as well as various methods for processing the redemption of vending machine subscription items. Several additional embodiments are disclosed, including various alternate methods of promoting longitudinal machine-customer relationships.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A vending machine configured to accept a subscription code from a customer, determine a positive number of units remaining in a subscription account identified by the subscription code, and provide access to, in response to an instance of the determining, at least one unit of a product in accordance with a term of the subscription account. 
     
     
       2. The vending machine of  claim 1 , wherein an instance of the acceptance of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, from a mobile electronic device of the customer, a wireless transmission indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       3. The vending machine of  claim 1 , wherein an instance of the acceptance of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, from a remote server device, a signal indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       4. The vending machine of  claim 1 , wherein an instance of the acceptance of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, via an input device of the vending machine and from the customer, input indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       5. A machine, comprising:
 a processor; and 
 a memory in communication with the processer, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor result in:
 accepting a subscription code from a customer via a customer interface of the machine; 
 determining, based on the subscription code, a positive number of units remaining in a subscription account identified by the subscription code; and 
 providing, in response to an instance of the determining of the positive number of units remaining in the subscription account, at least one unit of product in accordance with a term of the subscription account. 
 
 
     
     
       6. The machine of  claim 5 , wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, from a mobile electronic device of the customer, a wireless transmission indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       7. The vending machine of  claim 5 , wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, from a remote server device, a signal indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       8. The vending machine of  claim 5 , wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, via an input device of the vending machine and from the customer, input indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processing device result in:
 accepting a subscription code from a customer via a customer interface of the machine; 
 determining, based on the subscription code, a positive number of units remaining in a subscription account identified by the subscription code; and 
 providing, in response to an instance of the determining of the positive number of units remaining in the subscription account, at least one unit of product in accordance with a term of the subscription account. 
 
     
     
       10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, from a mobile electronic device of the customer, a wireless transmission indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       11. The vending machine of  claim 9 , wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, from a remote server device, a signal indicative of the subscription code. 
 
     
     
       12. The vending machine of  claim 9 , wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:
 receiving, via an input device of the vending machine and from the customer, input indicative of the subscription code.